Published 2:30 pm, Monday, January 18, 2016

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Samantha McClellan, left, gives David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, a high-five after signing a letter of committment Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three female slots in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon trial in Los Angeles Feb. 13.

Samantha McClellan, left, gives David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, a high-five after signing a letter of committment Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three

Samantha McClellan, second from left, gives a group high-five after signing a letter of committmentat Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three female slots in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon trial in Los Angeles Feb. 13.

Samantha McClellan, second from left, gives a group high-five after signing a letter of committmentat Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three female slots in

Samantha McClellan signs a letter of committment as David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, looks on Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three female slots in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon trial in Los Angeles Feb. 13.

Samantha McClellan signs a letter of committment as David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, looks on Tuesday. McClellan plans to compete for one of three female slots in the

Jarrett Leblanc, left, shakes hands with David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, after signing a letter of committment as Tuesday. Leblanc plans to compete for one of three male slots in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon trial in Los Angeles Feb. 13.

Jarrett Leblanc, left, shakes hands with David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, after signing a letter of committment as Tuesday. Leblanc plans to compete for one of three

Jarrett Leblanc signs a letter of committment as David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, looks on Tuesday. Leblanc plans to compete for one of three male slots in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon trial in Los Angeles Feb. 13.

Jarrett Leblanc signs a letter of committment as David Argueta, president and CEO of Chi St. Luke's Health - The Woodlands, looks on Tuesday. Leblanc plans to compete for one of three male slots in the 2016 Rio

THE WOODLANDS — The 2016 Rio Olympic Trials will be held in Los Angeles come Feb. 13 and three Olympic hopefuls have chosen The Woodlands as their training ground.

Samantha McClellan, Jarrett LeBlanc, and Chris Bilbrew have partnered up with of CHI St. Luke’s Health — The Woodlands to prepare for the upcoming trials.

Just last week, CHI St. Luke’s held a small signing event to introduce McClellan, who now resides in The Woodlands and is originally from Michigan and LeBlanc, who is from Louisiana, (Bilbrew was unable to attend) to the community and officially announce their sponsorship of the three athletes.

“This is truly a blessing,” 25-year-old LeBlanc said. “To have people that want to help out as much as they do is something that you can’t give back to them. It’s very rewarding knowing that I’m working with some phenomenal people here are St Luke’s. It’s truly an honor.”

LeBlanc and McClellan will each be vying for spots as marathon runners. McClellan will be competing with 276 women for three spots on the American team, while LeBlanc will try to edge out nearly 200 men for one of the three spots on the men’s team.

With the trials less than a month away, the runners are beginning to ramp up their training — making the partnership with CHI St. Luke’s Health even more important.

Several months back, LeBlanc suffered a back injury that kept him from training for two months. During his journey through recovery, he found CHI St. Luke’s.

Andy Arthur is the lead physical trainer at CHI St. Luke’s, and says that the biggest thing they can offer the athletes right now is injury prevention and management.

“I try to work on things like their mobility, flexibility, and alignment — things they wouldn’t get on their own,” Arthur said. “For a lot of athletes, they have small restrictions or asymmetries that may be keeping them from running as efficiently as they can be. I try to identify those things and treat that as well.”

McClellan, now 27, has been running since she was in middle school and she has kept running ever since.

Though she didn’t have any kind of injury that led her to CHI St. Luke’s Health, she wasn’t quite sure what to do to up her training regime until she met with the staff.

“They came at a great time,” McClellan said. “I was in transition, as far as not knowing what I was going to be as far as training and [having them here was] something that has really helped me.”

CHI St. Luke’s Health -The Woodlands president David Argueta say the partnership with each athlete was a “match made in heaven.”

“They needed a place where they could get specialized training and therapy,” he said. “We’ve had Olympic athletes train here before, but these are the first that we’ve officially sponsored. We are really excited about it.”

The athletes have been training with CHI St. Luke’s for over three months now, and McClellan says the experience has been nothing short of amazing.

“It’s been fun,” she said. “That might sound weird to say but I have a lot of fun when I come in and I see everyone I work with, or who is helping me — it’s a positive atmosphere. Everyone is very knowledgeable and welcoming, so it’s great working here.”

Argueta said the feeling is mutual and that the experience has encouraged CHI St. Luke’s to sponsor other Olympic hopefuls in the future.

“I’m impressed with the kind of people all three of them are,” he said. “It’s been great. They are very humble and have been very accessible — it’s been a really great relationship. We are proud to be able to have any effect on these athletes that might end up representing our country.”